Kansas Oil Production Drops Significantly In 2015

Oil production in Kansas fell sharply last year. According to the Kansas Geological Survey, oil production in the state dropped more than 8 percent in 2015.

Last year's steep decline in production and oil prices has been hard on those who work in the industry as well as those who receive royalties from mineral rights.

"When you don't have the production coming from new wells coming to replace the older wells as they decline, then overall production goes down," says Rex Buchanan, the interim director of the Kansas Geological Survey. "There's obviously a lot of people that are employed in the oil and gas industry and services and that sort of thing that it affects as well, and then landowners just don't see the royalty income that they would otherwise see, so it has kind of a ripple effect throughout the economy."

The average monthly oil price fell to $39 per barrel in 2015. The year before, it was more than double that amount.

Gas prices are lower than they have been for years. On Jan.7th, you can pay $1.70 a gallon at several Wichita stations. There is hope that low prices will be a boom to the economy, but as KMUW's Aileen LeBlanc reports, the oil industry in Kansas is treading water.

"Kansas operators are price takers, not price makers," Jon Callen, Edmiston Oil Company President, says. "We just have to accept whatever the world price is going to be. If we lost total Kansas (oil) production, the world would never even notice it."